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A review by daniella84
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I think this was a victim of being too hyped up in my head and then not meeting those lofty expectations, rather than this being a bad book.
I don't mind a quieter dystopian/apocalypse story but I think I need those stories to either be weird or I need to be more emotionally connected to the protagonist. Here I didn't really get either of those things, and since I wasn't really invested in the philosophising about the 'why' of it all (I didn't mind the open ending and think it suited the story well), I didn't get as much out of it as everyone else. I was also kind of hoping for it to have less focus on men based on the title, but it kind of swung the other way where it was more about the fact she'll never know men and be able to get pregnant/have a child (which I get was more about her being deprived of the choice but it felt a little too "women are made to make babies" for my liking, though this also was a relatively small part of the story).
It definitely brings up some interesting thoughts about how our societal 'rules' would bend and change in situations like this, and what the purpose of life is if there is no one to witness it. Definitely a book you could analyse and discuss at length if you enjoy that sort of thing. I just don't think it's quite the sort of dystopian I love :/
I don't mind a quieter dystopian/apocalypse story but I think I need those stories to either be weird or I need to be more emotionally connected to the protagonist. Here I didn't really get either of those things, and since I wasn't really invested in the philosophising about the 'why' of it all (I didn't mind the open ending and think it suited the story well), I didn't get as much out of it as everyone else. I was also kind of hoping for it to have less focus on men based on the title, but it kind of swung the other way where it was more about the fact she'll never know men and be able to get pregnant/have a child (which I get was more about her being deprived of the choice but it felt a little too "women are made to make babies" for my liking, though this also was a relatively small part of the story).
It definitely brings up some interesting thoughts about how our societal 'rules' would bend and change in situations like this, and what the purpose of life is if there is no one to witness it. Definitely a book you could analyse and discuss at length if you enjoy that sort of thing. I just don't think it's quite the sort of dystopian I love :/